1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for actuating a shift lever in an automatic transmission for a vehicle, in which the transmission has a conventional shift pattern and a shift distance of the shift lever is made shorter in order to improve precision in shift of gears.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, the shift of gears in a vehicle is performed by a transmission which transmits the drive force from an engine to wheels while changing speed with the actuation of a shift lever. Generally, the shift lever has a variety of shift patterns, and the shift of gears is carried out by actuating the shift lever according to shift patterns.
Shift patterns exist in automatic transmissions as well as manual transmissions, and the shift patterns differ for every manufacturer for shift levers and transmissions. Generally, automatic transmissions have a shift pattern that has the layout of P-N-R-D or the layout further having speed ranges of 3-2-1 after the D range.
Further, recently developed shift-by-wire (SBW) levers may have unique shift patterns unlike existing mechanical shift levers. That is, since the SBW levers are actuated in an electronic mode, the SBW levers may have different shift patterns from a conventional pattern so that, for example, a P range and an N range may be located at the same position.
Because of such a difference in the shift pattern of the SBW lever from that of an existing mechanical shift lever, users may feel the system is foreign or inconvenient. Even if the SBW lever takes the same shift pattern as a mechanical shift lever in order to solve this problem, the distance between speed ranges needs to be narrowed owing to restrictions in space, so a shift error may occur in which, for example, when a driver tries to shift gear from a P range to an R range, the gear is shifted from the P range to an N range instead of the R range.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.